Make Musicals

Don’t tell me you have the next Broadway hit on your hands. You may have written a great draft of a script, have a brilliant idea for a show, or have licensed a hot movie property or musical catalog. But that alone does not a hit make.

To truly have a hit on your hands you’ll need a whole lot more hands. First, you’ll need just the right development partners for your piece, including an exceptional producer and the ideal directors and designers.

Next, you’ll have to navigate your promising musical through months and years of development, collecting the finger prints of countless creative collaborators.

If all goes well, you’ll find success along the way in the form of positive feedback, production offers, or eager investors. But you still don’t have a hit.

Next, you’ll open your definitive production on Broadway, off-Broadway or at your favorite regional theater. The show is now in the hands of the extraordinary cast, musicians, crew, and no small amount of money and marketing will have been added to the mix.

If you’re right about your show, you’ll sell hundreds or thousands of tickets and audiences will lay down the big bucks to see your musical night after night. Only THEN can you tell me you have a hit.

Until then, tell me you have a new musical that you’re passionate about. Tell me you have ten reasons why audiences will love your show. Tell me why you think we would work well together or ask me for help. Tell me about your successes or talented collaborators.

But unless you are inviting me to your 100th sold out performance (and I hope you do!), don’t tell me you have the next Broadway hit on your hands.

4 Responses to Don’t Tell Me You Wrote The Next Broadway Hit

I could change a few words in this post and make it about the book business. I get emails from wannabe authors all the time that tell me they have an obvious bestseller. It indicates a supreme lack of industry knowledge, which usually means they also haven’t done their homework in terms of learning how to write a novel or a non-fiction book.

There’s also the comment that “everyone who has read it loves it .” If you have some talent, most people will be impressed by that, so even if your work is not totally at a professional level, you are the only one who has handed them a book that good that someone they know has written. And of course, they want to like your book (or show) so they will be more forgiving than the general public. And even if they don’t like it overall, since they are your friend, they will bend over backwards to tell you the things they do like about it.

Sometimes I wish you could do a “musical proposal” the way you do a book proposal and make a case that there’s a built-in audience for your piece just because they are voracious buyers of other stuff, which as you know in my case would be the new age crowd.

i love the idea of coming up with 10 reasons that audiences will love your show.

Sounds daunting !
And it should…
Because every detail of the least proportionate component of your new musical MUST be a cut above the most recent Broadway hit.
Expect it to take two….three times longer than you would expect, to achieve the results that you have swirling around in your head.
But, no matter how daunting, NEVER let go of that passion, because one day…you just may have that Broadway hit on your hands.

We have just completed writing. It is not a hit yet. We haven’t even managed to put up a reading. Nevertheless, here’s my shot at 10 reasons:

1. It is really fun!
2. The characters are engaging
3. The conflicts are relatable – father/daughter; husband/wife; individual/system; good/evil; leaving home/coming home
4. It’s about a hometown; everybody’s got one
5. It’s about Planning and Zoning issues and these are hugely important to suburb dwellers
6. It’s about eminent domain and the Kelo case made this a prominent cause
7. It’s about saving an old theater and who doesn’t want to help out with that
8. It has two love stories; one for the seniors and one for the 20-somethings
9. The music is fresh and familiar at the same time
10. Melody is a big feature in each song
11. It is unabashedly sentimental and irrepressibly enthusiastic
12. The backstory is interesting; the book and lyric writer is 67 and the music composer is 23 and they met online.

Okay, I have this musical that I am passionate about. It is an adaptation of THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO. This story has been done as films, T.V shows, comic books, Manga, amous 19th centuty straight play (James Oneil), and has been translated into every language in the world. But not as a big Broadway musica, yet!This story has all the potential of Les Miserable and Phantom of the Opera. Star vehical for someone like Hasselhoff (Jekyl and Hyde) or Robbie Benson (Beauty and the Beast). Unit set. Cast of 24 (including understudies and swings) Just the right size for Broadway.

My script has been read by Michale Reno (Lion King producer) who said it was the next Les Miserable. So why didn’t he produce it? Timing. The resession had just hit and no one was investing in shows. Mr Reno is currently booked up on his nest dozen projects and the time is right NOW for MONTE CRISTO.

So I am asking for your help. I don’t have the connections but I do have the product. I asking you to go to my website http://www.montecristotheopera.com and listen to a short demo, read the synopsis, and then get back to me. I want to make my mark on Broadwway. You and I both want to make money. This could be a valuable investment. Opportunities don’t come around very often. When they do you have to sieze them Like Edmon Dantes in THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO.